


Desert's Daughter

by echoesoftheforce



Category: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Badass Rey, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Child Abandonment, Force Awakens Novelisation, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Visions, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jakku, Jedi Luke Skywalker, Luke and Kylo are minor characters, Luke and Rey Are Not Related, Minor Character Death, Original Character(s), Parent-Child Relationship, Rey is not related to anyone, Scavenger Rey (Star Wars), Slavery, Snoke lied, Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers, That's pretty much nowhere, The Force, Unkar Plutt - Freeform, Young Rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 17:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15976604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoesoftheforce/pseuds/echoesoftheforce
Summary: Hiraeth n. (Welsh) A deep homesickness; an intense form of longing or nostalgia for a place long gone, or even an unaccountable homesickness for a place you have never visited.Sometimes, Rey climbs to the top of the sand mountains and sees the warm flickering lights of her old home, and she wonders if her parents were thinking of her too.This work might cover Rey's entire life before TFA or just her childhood, or even stretch all the way to TLJ.





	Desert's Daughter

A hand, soft, warm, gentle, brushed against her cheek.

"We'll come back for you, sweetheart."

The little girl stared at her mother, fear and horror radiating from her eyes. She could feel the air around her tremble in response to her tumult of emotions. "I promise." The hand gently wiped away the tears from her cheeks. The child realised, much later, that her mother's hands were shaking. The woman began to walk away, towards a ship, their ship, where a man sat brooding in the cockpit. "No. No! Come back!" The girl tried to chase after her mother. A strong alien hand gripped her thin arm. Still she tried to run, and for a moment futility had no impact on her. She really, truly believed that her willpower could somehow reverse her situation. This time, she was wrong.

The woman stopped in her tracks. "I'm sorry, Rey." She hoped her daughter had heard her. It was for the better. Her husband would get his drinking money, and hopefully, her daughter would suffer less in this part of Jakku. "I'm so, so sorry." Later, she hoped Rey hadn't heard. She couldn't decide which was better. _A horrible parent, that's exactly what you are._ Unable to stay there anymore, she ran. The child's piteous cries grew softer and softer, until it faded away with the desert winds.

The ship's engines throttled, and the craft spun around, ready to leave.

Her sense of desperation renewed, Rey screamed again. No one answered her. She briefly turned to regard her captor, an attempt to plead with him. And she turned back, her head skywards, a silent cry trapped in her mouth as she watched the ship disappear from the skies. She was alone. She crumbled to the floor, her tiny frame shaking as she sobbed.

Unkar Plutt had dealt with way too many of these new slaves to care about the little child that was in front of him. Still, this girl was different. Most slaves were born of other slaves, or their parents truly didn't care and sold them as soon as they could walk. Rey was six standard years, old enough to recognise her parents. And interestingly enough, her mother seemed to care.

Plutt shrugged the matter off his mind. Slaves from all backgrounds came under his wing all the time. Better to stop thinking too much and to just put his latest manpower addition to work.

Such a small and useless child, he thought, sneering at the little girl. He could send her to the shipyards, perhaps. Provided she doesn't fall to her death immediately. The 20,000 credits that he had spent buying her mustn't go to waste that fast.

If he had been observant enough to notice the sand grains rising from the ground and swirling around the child, he might have thought differently. But the alien was already off to his station to collect more profitable materials.

 

Rey stood there for a long time, in a silent vigil for the loss of her family. Her eyes were red from crying, and the desert heat made her dizzy. Her vision was beginning to swim, and her head hurt. Still, she refused to move from her spot. She curled her legs and settled on the hot sand, her skin burning. The blue horizons began to converge with the desert plains, and slowly, her world turned black.

When Rey awoke, she was in a cot. "Mum?" She called weakly. She felt feverish. Vaguely, she noticed a cold compress on her head. The hideous face of Unkar Plutt emerged from the shadows.

Rey jumped, and if not for the fact that she was too weak to move, she would have sprang up and pummeled Plutt on his stomach until he fell. "You should be glad I decided to check on you. You could've died. Not that I care." Unkar Plutt's voice conveyed his disdain for the pathetic little human in front of him. Rey fixed him with a glare, but refrained from responding to his demeaning words. She knew what happened to slaves who didn't obey.

"Such a waste of water. Surely you know how precious such a commodity is on Jakku." Jakku. So that's where they were. Still on her home planet. Rey, who did not intend to cross her new guardian right on the first day, nodded slowly.

He sort of looked like a blobfish.

Blobfish?

That's it, she would call him the blobfish from now on.

Rey sighed. The only reason why Unkar Plutt saved her was because he couldn't afford to lose his latest investment before she began to generate a profit. Fortunately, she was not a slave. Not the definition of it, anyway. Unkar Plutt could not afford to waste precious metal resources for shackles on his scavengers when they could be sold for good money. And it cost money to house and feed slaves. It was far easier to just let them wander the desert. After all, when they got hungry they would have to work for him, since he was the only one supplying food rations. Where else could they go? Scavenging on Jakku was they only life they knew. And hopefully, as Unkar Plutt would think, they would only ever know that life. Rey managed a small smile. She would learn to fly. And one day she would leave this Force-forsaken planet.

Then she remembered. Of course she couldn't. She can't leave her family here. They were everything to her. A small voice sneered at her with derision. _What family?_

Her eyes were still red from crying. Just what had she done to deserve this? Nothing. She had been a good child. Her mother loved her. Her father, on the other hand, was an alcoholic. He often came back drunk, in the dead of the night. Rey would often find herself with purplish marks blossoming all over her skin by morning, a bloodied whip carelessly dropped on the floor, and Father gone back to whichever Cantina pub he preferred for the moment. Her mother was helplessly silent. She was perpetually in a daze, tuning out her daughter's cries. Then when Father was gone, her mother would take Rey in her arms and hold her tight, tears streaming down her cheeks.

With nothing better to do, she took in her surroundings. The room was bare, other than the bed she was on. The bed was hard, animal hide filled with sand, and it laid atop a cot haphazardly put together with dismantled ship hull. The hut itself seemed to be built from wood pieces lashed together with rope. A rope curtain was the door.

Curiosity got the better of her and she lightly slid off the animal hide, putting the blanket aside.

She stood at the window, and watched the sunset turn the white sands orange. They glowed with both hope and fury, and settled into a mysterious purplish hue. Her future seemed just as uncertain, shrouded in darkness. She could feel that. She wondered what adventures, what stories she might discover. And between it all, an energy lay dormant within her. A Force. Waiting to be unleashed, unlocked by a catalyst.

 

Meanwhile, light years away, a lightsaber as yet unscathed by its years of storied legacy was gently placed in a wooden box. It would not be opened for the next twelve years.


End file.
